Main Drain Crossing at Somerton Avenue & County 11th Street

The past three weeks have found our construction crews busy with replacing the Main Drain culvert at the intersection of Somerton Avenue and County 11th Street. The original “tin-horn” culvert was deteriorated due to it’s age. Association crews replaced the crossing with 208-feet of rubber-gasket, reinforced concrete pipe (RGRCP), and capped it off with two concrete head-walls. Work is estimated to be completed within the third week of May.

Crews begin to excavate the site with a CAT loader, CAT long-reach excavator, and a Leibherr long-reach excavator.

The old corrugated metal pipe has been removed, and drain flows continue. A high-pressure gas line, and two communication lines have been supported and protected in place.

Due to groundwater intrusion in the work zone, de-watering points and pumping must be put into place to allow construction workers to excavate further and place the new pipe.

All of the individual points have been installed, a header placed, and the whole system connected together to a pump. Earthen taps were installed upstream and downstream of the work zone to prevent flows from flooding the site out. Here, you can see the pumping at work, lowering the water table in the immediate area.

Crews carefully place the 48″ diameter pipe, installing gaskets between each section. The green John Deere tractor in the background drives a water pump that is connected to the blue pipe above the workers. This water is naturally occurring drain water that is being bypass pumped from upstream back into the channel below the work site.

With all of the pipe set, concrete head-walls are formed and poured by Association crews. These head-walls cap off each end of the new pipeline, ensuring integrity of the overall installation and preventing scouring around the entrance and exit of the pipe.